102 NEIGHBOURS UNKNOWN 



late June, most of the puffins had hatched 

 out their eggs. At the doorway of almost 

 every burrow, therefore, was to be seen one 

 of the parents on guard, while the other was 

 away fishing to supply the insatiable demands 

 of the chick. In dense ranks, sitting erect like 

 auks or penguins, the seriously grotesque 

 little birds sentinelled their homes, main- 

 taining a business-like quiet in strange con- 

 trast to the ear-splitting volubility of their 

 neighbours. 



At the extreme left of the territory of the 

 puffins, where the rocks broke abruptly, a tiny 

 cleft-full of earth made room for just one nest. 

 The pair of puffins who had their burrow here 

 were comparatively isolated, being some eight 

 or ten feet apart from the crowded ranks of 

 their kin. Their one big egg had been safely 

 hatched. The ridiculous chick, all gaping 

 beak and naked belly, the one object of their 

 passionate solicitude, was thriving and hungry 

 according to the finest traditions of infant 

 puffinhood. The father, at this moment, was 

 on guard at the mouth of the burrow, sitting 

 solemnly erect on his webbed feet, the backs 

 of his legs, and his stiff, short tail ; while the 

 mother was away fishing beyond the white 

 turmoil of the surf. 



Surely the most curious figure of a]l the 



